Baby Boy Born In Pakistan Has Heart Outside Body: Report

This rare disorder, where the heart is located either outside the body, is known as ectopia cordis.

Islamabad: An infant in Pakistan's Multan city was born with the heart beating outside his body. Due to lack of proper medical facilities in Multan, the baby boy, born on Tuesday, was later brought to the Lahore Children Complex.

Doctors said that the baby's heart is functioning properly but a surgery is required to place it inside the body, Geo News reported. If everything goes well, the child will live a healthy life, they added.

The infant's father is a taxi-driver and does not have the resources to afford expensive healthcare, the report said.

This rare disorder, where the heart is located either partially or totally outside the thorax, is known as Ectopia Cordis and occurs in 5.5 - 7.9 per million live births.

In August 2016, UK-based doctors conducted a marathon surgery on nine-month-old baby, Nathan Byrne. The infant's thumb-nail sized heart was stopped for 15 hours in order to conduct the life-saving procedure.

Without complex surgery, Nathan would not have lived beyond six months. To give his organs a chance to recover Nathan was attached to a machine that circulated his blood outside of his body, reported the PTI. The baby also had to be starved for 10 days after an infection left his bowel on the verge of busting.